March 20, 2009

March 16, 2009

In case you haven't heard: after a year of deliberation (apparently), SCI FI settled on a brand new name: SyFy. No, seriously.

Immediately, Livejournal users started pronouncing the new name as "Siffy." My tweeps free associated..never mind.

It's reminiscent of the ancient insult - Skiffy - often employed in the old days by Usenet members. I think, but am not certain, that the scathingly funny and prolific Gharlane of Eddore may have coined the term. (Gharlane, god rest his soul.)

At any rate, Syfy is currently a hot topic on Twitter. Users are having a lot of fun today skewering the choice. I'll try to post the "best of" as they flow into my own Twitter page.

The fallout from the CNBC Santelli rant which lead to the Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart smackdown on The Daily Show continues to burn and fester. A petition campaign, slamming CNBC, erupted on my Twitter page this morning.

Petitioners are urging users to sign their names to the following:

FixCNBC! CNBC: Hold Wall Street Accountable

Dear CNBC —

“You knew what the banks were doing, and yet were touting it for months and months.

The entire network was.” — Jon Stewart

These now-legendary words were a wake-up call. We’re asking you to wake up.

March 15, 2009

CNBC's reputation has taken a beating lately. Damage from the much anticipated Daily Show smackdown between Jon Stewart and CNBC's Jim Cramer may be slow to heal.

CNBC left the ring bruised and battered. The question is: when will audiences trust the network's coverage again, if ever?

It's been a public relations disaster and NBC Universal execs have only themselves to blame.

The controversy really started a looooong time ago (in television/24 hour news cycle time) with CNBC's Rick Santelli and his meltdown, live, from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.

To recap: Santelli went OFF on a rant about the Obama Administration's plan to save desperate homeowners from foreclosure. He compared Obama's effort to Cuba under Castro. Santelli trashed homeowers as nothing more than a bunch of reprobates who borrowed money to add "an extra bathroom" to their now underwater homes.

Yet, the Wall Street investment firms and bankers responsible for the big mess in the first place had secured close to a cool trillion - just in time to pay out billions in staff bonuses, and, ironically (in the case of Merrill Lynch's John Thain), renovate their corporate bathrooms with $35,000 commodes.

Santelli's rant was oddly self-serving and tone deaf in a "let them eat cake" way.

Instead of allowing the rant to fizzle, NBC Universal cross-promoted the Santelli breakdown. Sister network NBC featured Santelli's moment in the sun at the top of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

Users stampeded to the CNBC website, after Drudge posted a link. But be careful what you wish for. The blow-back from that brief flare of attention has been intense.

What was NBC Universal thinking? How did they not grasp the obvious blow-back potential of the Santelli rant?

Enter Jon Stewart:

Stewart picked a fight with this now famous frontal assault on CNBC. He unloaded on Rick Santelli after Santelli canceled a scheduled appearance on The Daily Show. (It's never a good idea to cancel an appearance. John McCain, for instance, learned the hard way after he bailed on David Letterman.)

Then, Jim Cramer - who resides in the most delicate of all CNBC glass houses - complained his remarks were taken out of context by Stewart. Uh, oh. Stewart was all over that one. Here, he eviscerates Cramer and invites someone - anyone! - from CNBC to guest on his show.

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric gave the smackdown extensive coverage with a lengthy commentary by Jeff Greenfield reminiscent of the old news days a la Walter Cronkite. Stewart, noted Greenfield, "was like a prosecutor bearing down on a decidedly clearly uncomfortable witness."

KRON 4, a local San Francisco station, flayed CNBC. The on-air host asserted that the

producer for Jim Cramer's CNBC show Mad Money was formerly a producer for Jerry Springer.

March 14, 2009

I have only two things to say about Breaking Bad, Season Two, Episode 2 "Grilled" which airs tomorrow, March 15, at 10p.

1. In this episode you will meet "Tio," the uncle of Tuco (Raymond Cruz), the psychotic drug dealer. Tio (Mark Margolis) is confined to a wheelchair. He's completely paralyzed except (pretty much) for one, intense beady eye and a single forefinger. Even so, Tio is a force to be reckoned with. Watch the amazing Margolis (Oz) make the most of his limitations.

March 13, 2009

Tomorrow, March 14, is Pi Day on Science Channel! How did I remember? I found a hot, fresh pizza pie sitting on my front porch yesterday, along with a nice note from Science Channel reminding me.

Lunch! A totally memorable, consumable press kit.

Science Channel salutes Pi on their website. Immerse yourself in the "mysterious digit that's held the world captive for thousands of years. Numerically, it's 3.14159265 .... on to infinity. It is an irrational number that never ends....It has been calculated out to over a trillion digits, but it does not repeat."

TheDailyShow.com attracted the largest audience and also streamed the most videos in a single day in 2009

RATINGS:

Last night’s episode (Thursday, March 12, 2009) of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” featuring guest Jim Cramer from CNBC, drew 2.3 million total viewers, making it the second most-watched episode of the year and one of the top 10 most-watched episodes in show’s history.

Only the Inauguration Day episode from Tuesday, January 20, 2009 drew more viewers this year with 2.6 million total viewers.

The strength of these episodes propelled “The Daily Show”to record heights for the second time this year, alongside Inauguration Week. These were the most-watched weeks of the year and two of the top 10 weeks in the show’s history.

The series drew an average 2.1 million total viewers for the week of March 9th overall.

March 11, 2009

The legal tiff over which network - Lifetime or Bravo - has the legal right to broadcast Project Runway continues, with suits and countersuits.

Just a few moments ago, in response to Jimmy Kimmel's question about the show's fate, PR's Heidi Klum said she doesn't know, but Klum half-quipped that "people should be demonstrating in front of Harvey Weinstein's house."